Tonight with lows in the lower 30s will be the warmest, yes, warmest night that we’ll see for the rest of the week. More Arctic air is heading south tonight and will plunge the Northwest into another deep freeze with overnights falling into the teens by late week and highs struggling to get to freezing. Also, the next storm that arrives for the weekend may start off as snow and freezing rain areawide.

For the next couple of days, highs will steadily decrease into the mid and low 30s as cold, dry, offshore winds start to crank up across the state. Tomorrow I think we’ll still have enough moisture near the ground for some patchy AM fog in the valley and Umpqua. However, as high pressure moves in throughout the day, we’ll see clouds eventually start to break up by the afternoon. Highs tomorrow will sit in the low 40s.

Midweek through Friday, it’ll be very similar to the cold spell we saw at the beginning of December, sunny skies, frost on the cars in the morning, and cold, dry nights. Highs will struggle to make it into the low to mid 30s and we may spend only a few hours each day above freezing. Clear skies will ensure a rapid drop off in temperatures soon after sunset. This will really have an impact on any potted plants and certainly outdoor pets.

The weekend forecast is going to start off mighty tricky. An approaching storm will move through on Saturday. Because of the dense, cold air in place, the initial wave of the storm may fall as either snow or snow changing to freezing rain before turning to all rain late Saturday into Sunday. It’s too early to say how much or who sees which exactly, but we’ll be watching this potential winter storm very closely over the next couple of days.